Campaign Funds

The campaign to re-elect Mayor Martin O'Malley spent slightly more than it raised over the past eight months, doling out money for standard election-year expenses and steering cash to other candidates and causes, according to the mayor's most recent campaign finance report. The mayor's campaign committee, Friends of Martin O'Malley, reported Friday a cash balance of $753,248, which is nearly $34,000 less than the cash he had on hand in February. The campaign raised $307,437 during the eight-month reporting period and spent $341,254.

WASHINGTON - A federal judge has ruled that the Federal Election Commission repeatedly misinterpreted the 2002 campaign-finance-reform legislation when it issued rules implementing the law, creating "an immense loophole" that could "foster corruption." The decision striking down more than a dozen FEC rules is unlikely to have an effect on this year's election, campaign-finance experts said yesterday. The Saturday ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly represented yet another blow to the beleaguered agency, which has come under fire from key members of Congress and reformers who say it is ineffective and should be abolished.

CHEVY CHASE -- High heels are sinking into damp grass as couples make their way into a spacious home in a posh suburb of Washington, ready to open their checkbooks for John Kerry. "If we don't get George Bush out of office, we're in big trouble," Kate Chieco says, standing on the manicured lawn under a light drizzle. Chieco, a 55-year- old writer, has given to Democrats before, but until now, nothing close to the $1,000 it costs to attend this soiree. "This time, it's more important -- I just think we need a change so badly," she says.

Former Vice President Al Gore announced yesterday that he will give $4 million in leftover campaign funds to the Democratic National Committee's campaign to defeat President Bush in the fall election. The man who narrowly lost the presidency in 2000 said in a prepared statement that he would give the money to oppose his onetime Republican foe. He's giving another $2.5 million to Democratic candidates for the U.S. House, Senate and in local races in Florida and Tennessee. "The outcome of this election is extremely important for the future of our country and for all that America stands for," Gore said.

Call him Mayor O'Money. Mayor Martin O'Malley was the biggest financial backer of nearly every incumbent City Council member who won September's Democratic primary elections and was the recipient of wide support from both businesses and unions, according to the mayor's year-end campaign finance report. During last year's campaign, the mayor pumped $57,000 into the coffers of 10 victorious incumbent council members. He also gave $13,000 to the campaigns of four losing candidates, two of whom were incumbents.

MONTGOMERY County Executive Douglas M. Duncan has a good friend in Francis O. Day III. The Rockville developer, his family members and about a dozen companies he controls have contributed almost $75,000 to the likely 2006 Democratic gubernatorial candidate - using a provision of Maryland election law that lets donors get around the state's $4,000 limit on contributions to a single candidate over each four-year election cycle. Fifteen of the contributions worth $68,000 - all but one for $4,000 - were listed as coming from the same Rockville address Sept.

JERUSALEM - As the Palestinian uprising enters its fourth year, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is now fighting on two fronts: There are the battles against the Palestinians, and then there are battles pitting him against a steadfast attorney general and the national police, who are investigating Sharon and two of his sons in three separate corruption cases. The cases involve several land deals and campaign finances from Sharon's campaigns for prime minister. Authorities hint that police might soon seek to question the prime minister.

The head of a public watchdog group yesterday asked the General Assembly's joint ethics committee to investigate whether Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, Jr. improperly used his Senate office to raise campaign money. "We think this is a matter that it would be appropriate for them to take up," said James Browning, executive director of Common Cause/Maryland. Miller denied any wrongdoing and said yesterday he would cooperate with any ethics committee probe. "We'll be happy to give them any information they want," the Prince George's Democrat said.

THE SNIPING has escalated between Democratic Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., the two upwardly mobile politicians who appear poised to jockey for office for decades - perhaps as soon as the 2006 race for governor. In the latest swipe, Ehrlich is accusing O'Malley of "stealing" his list of campaign donors and soliciting money from them to launch his own gubernatorial bid. The evidence: a request to buy a $4,000 ticket to an O'Malley fund-raiser that arrived at 8600 La Salle Road in Towson, which is Ehrlich's campaign office.

HAPPINESS IS being a former Maryland lawmaker appointed to a high-ranking state job: You get a wonderful "funeral," but you don't have to die. Former Sens. Perry Sfikas and Michael J. Collins and Del. Thomas E. Dewberry were eulogized to their faces last week as they appeared before the Senate Executive Nominations Committee for confirmation to the plum jobs given them by Gov. Parris N. Glendening last year. The nominations of the three Democrats were put on a fast track so that they could be confirmed before Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s inauguration tomorrow.